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Harry Fletcher
Jun 16, 2022
Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser Lord Geidt resigns
IndyTV
Boris Johnson’s ethics adviser Lord Christopher Geidt has quit, sparking another crisis for Boris Johnson - and social media is having a field day.
No 10 claimed the resignation came as a “surprise” and “mystery” to the PM, after Lord Geidt said that stepping down was the “right thing to do”.
Just days before, he spoke about the partygate scandal and told MPs it was “reasonable” to suggest Johnson broke the ministerial code by breaching lockdown laws.
He also said he was left “frustrated” by Johnson’s response to the Sue Gray report.
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“Resignation is one of the rather blunt but few tools available to the adviser,” he told a Commons committee earlier this week.
A No 10 source told PA news agency Johnson was “surprised” by his departure announced on Wednesday. “This is a mystery to the PM,” they added.
Lord Geidt becomes the second ethics advisor to quit during Johnson’s tenure, and the jokes pretty much wrote themselves on social media.
\u201cLord Geidt has just quit, so he's the second ethics advisor in a row to resign. It's almost as if they don't like the job of telling me I have broken the Ministerial Code then me telling them to shut up.\u201d— Parody Boris (@Parody Boris) 1655318023
\u201cBoris Johnson having an ethics adviser is about as useful and appropriate as me appointing a wealth adviser. \ud83d\ude0f\u201d— Jack Monroe (@Jack Monroe) 1655318981
\u201cNew HM Government Job Vacancy:\n\nEthics Advisor\n\nMust have:\n\nNo ethics\u201d— Marina Purkiss (@Marina Purkiss) 1655324304
\u201cBeing ethics advisor to @BorisJohnson has proved an impossible task for two highly skilled people. That pretty much says all we need to know\u201d— Tim Burgess (@Tim Burgess) 1655322101
\u201cShock as Boris Johnson\u2019s ethics adviser quits. Specifically, shock that someone was being paid to advise Boris Johnson on ethics.\u201d— Have I Got News For You (@Have I Got News For You) 1655316091
\u201cAdvising Boris Johnson on ethics would be like advising a cannibal on table manners\u2026\u201d— Larry the Cat (@Larry the Cat) 1655315263
\u201cBREAKING; Lord Geidt - the guy who clears Tories of the most blatant ethics breaches - has just resigned as the government's ethics adviser because even he thinks they've gone too far this time x\u201d— Laura Kuenssberg Translator (@Laura Kuenssberg Translator) 1655316366
\u201cBreaking: Johnson appoints new ethics advisor\u201d— Kuntie Plopkins - SUSPENDED (@Kuntie Plopkins - SUSPENDED) 1655321161
\u201cLord Geidt quits as Boris Johnson\u2019s ethics advisor.\n\u201cWith regret, I feel that it is right that I am resigning from my post as Independent Adviser on Ministers\u2019 Interests.\u201d\n\nThat\u2019s 2 ethics advisers in a row that resigned\nWhat does that say about the ethics of the one they advise?\u201d— nazir afzal (@nazir afzal) 1655315318
\u201cTo lose one ethics adviser may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose two looks like corruption...\n(To paraphrase Oscar Wilde.)\u201d— James Oh Brien (@James Oh Brien) 1655318368
\u201cLooking forward to Stanley Johnson being appointed as the new ethics chief.\u201d— Jess Phillips MP (@Jess Phillips MP) 1655321646
\u201cReplaced by *checks notes* that thing from Exorcist III that ran across the ceiling then cut a nun\u2019s head off with a giant pair of scissors.\u201d— James Henry (@James Henry) 1655315831
\u201cSo that\u2019s two of the PMs handpicked ethics advisers who have resigned - the first over the Priti Patel bullying, then a 5 month gap with no adviser, and now Geidt can take no more. The total inadequacy of our system for holding a rogue PM to account is laid bare tonight\u201d— Caroline Lucas (@Caroline Lucas) 1655321035
In a statement, Lord Geidt gave no explanation for his decision, saying only: “With regret, I feel that it is right that I am resigning from my post as Independent Adviser on Ministers’ Interests.”
His departure comes after Johnson’s first ethics advisor Sir Alex Allan quit in November 2020 after the prime minister overruled his finding that home secretary Priti Patel had bullied staff.
It’s another crisis for Johnson after he faced a damaging vote in the vote of confidence last week, having won by a slim 211 votes to 148.
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